Thursday, December 6, 2012

Once you finish writing a manuscript,what do you do? Edit until it shines, of course, but before you submit it to an
agent or editor or self-publish it, don’t forget the final step: Proofreading.

Consider the following paragraph:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod
are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit
pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the
wrod as a wlohe.

While this likely did not originate at
Cambridge University and doesn’t hold true in all circumstances, it does
illustrate the point that it’s easy to skim over spelling and typographical
errors without noticing them, especially when you’re reading words you’ve
painstakingly written and edited countless times.

Whether you’re polishing your manuscript
for a contest, preparing to submit to an agent or editor, or planning to
self-publish, knowing how to effectively proofread your work is an essential
skill. Remember — you never get a second chance to make a first
impression.

Many people
think proofreading and editing are the same thing, but in reality, they are
very different. Think of editing as a cake, and proofreading as the icing on
the cake. You spend a lot of time making that cake, greasing and flouring the
pan, painstakingly measuring and mixing the ingredients, baking it for just the
right amount of time, carefully removing it from the pan and cooling it on a
wire rack. You’ve created a fabulous cake, but who’s going to want to eat it if
you don’t put icing on the cake? Proofreading is the icing on the cake, the
final stage of the editing process. It is limited to mechanical correctness and focuses on
grammar, spelling, punctuation, typos, and syntax.

Before you proofread, edit. You can’t frost the cake
before it’s baked, can you? Your manuscript should be fully edited prior to
proofreading. You’re probably thinking that by the time you finish editing, you
will have caught all the proofreading errors. You probably did catch a few
typos, but because you weren’t proofreading, you didn’t catch everything. Why?
Because proofreading and editing require two different conceptual processes.
Editing involves analyzing and reorganizing information into effectively
expressed ideas. Proofreading requires separating the components of language
from any meaning so the brain doesn’t allow you to see what you want to see
rather than what is actually there on the page.

Tips for More Effective Proofreading

1.Practice

Have you ever been in the middle of reading a blog or
online news article when you notice a typo, a missing apostrophe, a sentence
you would have written differently? Practicing your proofreading skills on
other people’s work is a great way to improve your skills. It’s a fun, active
way to become more conscious of the process.

2.Get Some
Distance

If you have the time, let
your finished work sit for a while. In his book On Writing, author Stephen King recommends a minimum of two to
three weeks. Looking at it from a fresh perspective will make a huge difference
in your ability to catch errors.

3.Get a
Different Perspective

Printing out your work will often help you get the
different perspective you need to catch errors, but if you’re working on a long
manuscript, it’s a tremendous waste of resources. Oftentimes changing the font
style, size, and/or color will help you get a different perspective. Also try
reading it on your ereader, netbook, phone, or other device that will make it
look different than it did on your computer.Anything that changes the way it looks will help you see it from a new
perspective.

4.Read It Out
Loud

If I could only share one
tip with you, this would be the one. Reading your work out loud forces you to
focus on what’s actually written on the page instead of skimming over it like
you do when you read in your head. It will help you detect errors in punctuation,
syntax, rhythm, flow, and a myriad of other issues. Hearing your work read out
loud without having the written words in front of you can also be helpful.
Record yourself reading aloud, or try using the read aloud function on your
computer or ereader.

5.Know What You
Don’t Know

Look at proofreading as a learning experience.
When you proofread, you’re not just looking for errors you recognize. You also
need to learn to identify errors you didn’t know you were making. If something
looks or sounds wrong, look it up. If you’re not sure about something, look it
up.

The tips in this article come from a
lesson in my workshop, Tips and Techniques for More Effective Proofreading.

Ally Broadfield is a
grammar geek and freelance proofreader. She writes young adult/middle grade
fantasy and historical romance set in Regency England and Imperial Russia. You
can find her here:

Wonderful advice. I always find it funny that I can read through my own work a zillion times and not catch something that someone else will. We certainly do start to skim over our own writing after going through it so many times.

Terrific tips. It's so hard to catch those little things in our own writing because we know what it's supposed to say :) I really value my critique partners-they're so good at catching those pesky errors.